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Ice Boxes...?

SKUNK420

SKUNK420

Member
10k said:
Sorry to piss on Hydro Innovations cornflakes but...

What a huge stinking pile of baloney that dingfod is pfeeeewww !
Sheeesh if you want to cool the lights with cold flowing water, why not just run water cooled lights arrgh !

imnsho, an indoor growers money is much better off spent on decent air ducting and air conditioning / air handling for the grow space, than blowing it on a silly box attempting to cool down a vented hood.
A good air conditioned room can also support additional lights...the best real bang for the bucks !
.
Click to expand...

:bow:
 
B

Befri

Member
after reading this thread...I still haven't seen any users of this system that swear by this ICE BOX..

Are there any users that recommend this??
 
C

chranotik

Member
I run 3 600w's with 3 ice box's and a 1/4hp chiller.. i've got them daisy chained and have the chiller running the water to the first box in the line.. A 465cfm blower on one end and a 747 cfm vortex on the other end. It works well except im trying to find ways to add extra cooling to the reservoir. Like for example with one 600w it has no problem, with 2 the water sits at around 79 degrees and with 3 it goes up to 82-84. Granted it's on a 2nd floor and it's about 90 something in that room already. I freeze gallon jugs and toss them in everyday and that helps. As for the benefits with this type of cooling, well it's the only way i've been able to run a sealed room in the middle of summer without losing a lot of co2 to the window a/c, and that is one of the most important uses in my opinion. It also helps keep the room cool when the lights are off without the a/c cranking all day long.
 
C

chranotik

Member
Cotyledons said:
There aren't any kinks to the system, it's actually fairly simple. The chiller can be setup on a separate loop than the Ice Boxes and in this way you would need 2 pumps...one that would circulate from the chiller to the res and then another pump from the Ice Boxes to the res....OR the system can be run off of one pump in this way the water can be run from the reservoir and then outside to the chiller, then back to the Ice Boxes before draining back to the res. The chiller does not need to be close to the Ice Boxes, water can be pumped from anywhere.
Click to expand...

I think the setup works better like that with a pump running the chiller to the reservoir directly with the water being ran through the line/boxes with another pump, i might try this out next.
 
B

Befri

Member
chranotik said:
I run 3 600w's with 3 ice box's and a 1/4hp chiller.. i've got them daisy chained and have the chiller running the water to the first box in the line.. A 465cfm blower on one end and a 747 cfm vortex on the other end. It works well except im trying to find ways to add extra cooling to the reservoir. Like for example with one 600w it has no problem, with 2 the water sits at around 79 degrees and with 3 it goes up to 82-84. Granted it's on a 2nd floor and it's about 90 something in that room already. I freeze gallon jugs and toss them in everyday and that helps. As for the benefits with this type of cooling, well it's the only way i've been able to run a sealed room in the middle of summer without losing a lot of co2 to the window a/c, and that is one of the most important uses in my opinion. It also helps keep the room cool when the lights are off without the a/c cranking all day long.
Click to expand...


What temps is the room at?? with this current setup?
 
C

chranotik

Member
with 2 lights running i can keep at around 85-86, with 3 lights on it goes up to about 90.. but at 1500 ppm co2 thats about what you want, except for the last couple weeks of flowering which i plan on stopping the co2 and cranking the window a/c to get the temps as low as possible. Keep in mind it's been 100+ this summer and the room is about 86-90 degrees without anything running in there.
 
Seed Buyer

Seed Buyer

Member
I think you need a much bigger chiller, a 1hp would probably be just what you need. I am about to set up a 8K-9K grow with a 3hp chiller. I will keep yall posted how it works out.
 
C

chranotik

Member
heres a pic of my setup so you can kind of get an idea of how mine looks...

347iix5.jpg
 
Lazyman

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
somebody041 said:
wouldnt the pump only be on whenever the chiller is on? there is no need to run it 24 hours a day when the lights only need to be cooled for 12. and if you insulant your res or use a cooler i'm sure the chiller wouldn't be on all the time either...
Click to expand...

Tricky to make the pump kick on and off with temps, but it can be done. much easier to run the pump 24X7 and let the chiller kick on and off as needed. VERY bad to have a chiller running and no water going through it!

PoopyTeaBags, I like the idea of them too, but all of that hose plumbing would suck. At least HI sells big water chillers too. Nice for a totally sealed room but if you're air-cooling your lights, then you can't use Iceboxes like that ( i guess you could, they would just not be on your hoods.) Maybe make a 6" or 8" manifold with a few wyes in it and run it all off a 6" VOrtex or something? Sounds awkward and ugly, lol.
 
Lazyman

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
chranotik said:
I run 3 600w's with 3 ice box's and a 1/4hp chiller.. i've got them daisy chained and have the chiller running the water to the first box in the line.. A 465cfm blower on one end and a 747 cfm vortex on the other end. It works well except im trying to find ways to add extra cooling to the reservoir. Like for example with one 600w it has no problem, with 2 the water sits at around 79 degrees and with 3 it goes up to 82-84. Granted it's on a 2nd floor and it's about 90 something in that room already. I freeze gallon jugs and toss them in everyday and that helps. As for the benefits with this type of cooling, well it's the only way i've been able to run a sealed room in the middle of summer without losing a lot of co2 to the window a/c, and that is one of the most important uses in my opinion. It also helps keep the room cool when the lights are off without the a/c cranking all day long.
Click to expand...


Wouldn't this be more efficient if you were actually just air cooling your lights as usual and had the iceboxes JUST cooling the room? BLow the hot air from the lights outside instead of heating your water/chiller. They would probably work better that way.

I dunno, I think I'd rather get a LARGE aluminum car radiator and a 16" 12V fan, and run chiller water through THAT than buy a bunch of Iceboxes. Less plumbing, same idea, and would probably save time and money. Fewer parts= less work! Somthing like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-380331/
 
Lazyman

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
JustanotherDave said:
Me? Love the idea. I ran these "Big Boy" water cooled units for yrs.

heatexchange2c.jpg


This Ice Box looks to just be a mini, and less optioned, version of those. I can imagine them being VERY useful in at least a few different configurations.

I don't see a water chiller being necessary btw if you're able to freely run tap water to waste. That's how most guys run the big units...just tap water. Your local may vary.
Click to expand...

Hey there we go, didn't see that before. How much? Got a link to those bad boys?
 
C

chranotik

Member
No, because i'd lose all my co2 going straight out the room... i run a sealed room. Only using the ice boxes to eliminate almost all heat being created by the lights so the a/c doesnt have to work so hard.
 
Lazyman

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
Ah, no way to connect the light intake to a source outside the room I take it? If you take air right off the ceiling you shouldn't be grabbing much CO2 at all, especially if it's a tank system and not a gas-fired. That way you start with the hottest air at least and blow it outside. I usually put a 6-12" collar above my window AC's so I can duct air out.
 
Lazyman

Lazyman

Overkill is under-rated.
Veteran
Yeah the radiator I posted above is aluminum and 30"X19", I could cool water down to NOTHIN with something like that. I'd rather have one big piece of equipment than 8 small ones, especially if each one needed 2 hoses (eep!) By the way, I'm only talking about using this as a room air conditioner (ok water cooled heat exchanger) not to specifically cool lights/hoods.
 
C

chranotik

Member
Lazyman said:
Ah, no way to connect the light intake to a source outside the room I take it? If you take air right off the ceiling you shouldn't be grabbing much CO2 at all, especially if it's a tank system and not a gas-fired. That way you start with the hottest air at least and blow it outside. I usually put a 6-12" collar above my window AC's so I can duct air out.
Click to expand...

i'm actually considering doing that, maybe hooking up a little duct to the intake on the a/c so it would only be sucking out air from near the ceiling and not where the co2 is.
 
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